Reviews: Wilde, Fran

Updraft —
Fran Wilde

2015’s
Updraft
is
Fran Wilde’s debut novel; it is set in the same world as her 2013
short story “A Moment of Gravity, Circumscribed.” This is a world
where humans live confined to immensely tall bone towers; the ground
has been lost, far below and long ago. Travel between the towers is
by bridge and by wing. It is frequently perilous. Travelers are
menaced, and sometimes culled, by invisible predators called skymouths.

Most
of the people of the towers see their traditions and laws as their
only protections against a dangerous world. The laws are upheld by
the Singers, the autocrats who rule from aeries in the Spire. Woe to
the person who willfully or otherwise breaks the law. Punishment will
be swift and draconian.